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Show 'Big Fix' Mobile Pet Clinic Set Tuesday PANGUITCH The Big Fix i on Tour will spend the day in Pan-j Pan-j guitch on Aug. 15, making conven- ient, low-cost pet sterilization ' available to the community. The mobile spayneuter clinic is a state-of-the-art surgical unit on wheels that has begun traveling the state as part of No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a campaign to end the killing of healthy shelter animals by 2005. The Big Fix on Tour will offer spayneuters at the following prices: male cat, $15 for one cat, $10 each for three or more; female t cat, $25; male dog, $30; female ; dog, $35. i The mobile clinic will set up in s Panguitch behind the city offices at f 25 South 200 East. The clinic will i operate on a first-come, first-served basis. First animal intake is at 8 a.m.; second in-take will begin at 1 p.m. Pet owners are reminded that f animals must not eat ater 9 p.m. ; the night before the surgery or the z morning of the surgery, as food r may cause complications. Pets i may have water, however. "As far as we know, this unit is i like no other in the country," says e Gregory Castle, director of No r More Homeless Pets in Utah. It consistently covers an enormous geographical area, operates four days a week, 50 weeks a year, and will handle feral cat colonies several times a year. "There are other mobile clinics, but none of them covers this geographic geo-graphic area and none operates as often as we will." The Big Fix on Tour is a major element in the No More Homeless Pets campaign. The campaign is administered by Best Friends Animal Ani-mal Sanctuary in Kanab and is financed fi-nanced by an $8 million grant from Maddie's Fund, a California foundation. founda-tion. Increasing spayneuters will reduce re-duce Utah's pet overpopulation problem, a situation that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 15,000 healthy, adoptable animals in the state last year. The mobile clinic is staffed by a veterinarian, vet assistant and vet technician. The unit is 32 feet long and contains a separate surgery room, two surgery tables, a built-in anesthesia machine and 18 built-in cages for animals recovery. The goal for the clinic is to perform per-form 35 surgeries a day, amounting to 6,000 a year. "We hope the people of Panguitch Pan-guitch will take advantage of this opportunity to get their animals fixed at a very low cost and under convenient circumstances," Castle said. "We're trying to make it as easy as possible for people to help us end the tragic killing of dogs and cats and for pet owners to do their pets a tremendous service. Altered animals live much longer, happier lives than unaltered animals." "In fact," Castle points out, there are a number of reasons pets should be sterilized: Responsible Care: Seven million healthy, adoptable animals wee destroyed in the U.S. last year, simply because there were no homes for them. Altering animals prevents the sad proliferation of homeless animals. ani-mals. In just six years, one female dog and her offspring can be the source of 67,000 puppies. In seven years, one cat an her young can produce 420,000 kittens. Better Behavior: Neutered cats and dogs focus their attention on their human families. On the other hand, unsterilized males roam in search of a mate, risking injury in traffic and in fights with other males. When female cats go into heat, they yawl and urinate more frequently, fre-quently, sometimes all over the house, advertising for males. Often, Of-ten, they attract unneutered males who spray urine around the females' home. Longer Lives: An altered animal will live a longer, healthier (See BIG FIX CLINIC Page 2-A) BIG FIX CLINIC From Front Page life. Neutering a male cat or dog by six months of age prevents testicular tes-ticular cancer, prostate disease and hernias. Spaying a female cat or dog helps prevent uterine infections and breast cancer. Spaying before the first heat offers the best protection from these conditions and of course prevents unwanted litters. Altering Doesn't Change A Pet's Personality: Regardless Regard-less of the age when spayed or neutered, neu-tered, your pet will remain a loving (See BIG FIX CLINIC Page 3-A) BIG FIX CLINIC From Page 2-A and protective companion. Any slight change will be positive, producing pro-ducing a calming effect on the animal ani-mal no longer needing to breed. Neutering Doesn't Create Fat Or Lazy Pets: Lack of exercise ex-ercise and overfeeding, not altering, make pets fat lethargic. Your pet won't gain weight if you provide exercise and monitor food intake. Sterilization Isn't Dangerous Dan-gerous or Painful: Spaying and neutering are the most common surgeries performed on animals. With a minimal amount of home care, your pet will resume normal behavior in a couple of days. |